My happiness is not merely an emotional experience or a good mood. It consists of continual victories over my habitual worldview and unceasing resistance to the current of evil that seeks to take possession of my mind.
To be happy in our time is an achievement of the soul and a rather courageous decision that turns all accepted stereotypes upside down. At the same time, all Heaven is set in motion, and the entire plan of Salvation takes effect in the life of this spiritually happy person. Another soul has decided to live by the laws of God’s Kingdom, and that soul needs every heavenly resource in order to remain firm in this choice.
In essence, my thirst determines what I will ask for and receive, what I will strive for with all my soul, and what I will seek at all times.
Faith, love, faithfulness, and thirst—all these things are valued by the world and are very familiar to people, but only as temporary tools for achieving their plans or, at best, as features of a culture. They are found more often in the Christian world and have deeper roots there. But the Lord wants us to understand these principles clearly so that we can govern them and keep them pure and effective.
God offers a great many blessings to those who thirst. Jesus calls them blessed, because they will be filled. The mind of a hungry soul is intent on pleading for what it needs most. Yet ignorance of God’s promises or unbelief that you will receive what you ask for may hinder such persistent petitions.
The poor in spirit are those who have nothing within themselves with which to satisfy their souls, but they know that Jesus possesses these spiritual riches. Therefore, they go to Him to plead with tears for what their souls so deeply thirst for. Christ knew the longing of such people and devoted an entire Sermon on the Mount to them. The poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those persecuted for righteousness all share one characteristic: they thirst for righteousness in Christ Jesus and desire to have the Kingdom of Heaven within them. This longing is expressed in their sincere prayers for themselves and for their neighbors, and these petitions shake the throne of God day and night.
If I simply want something, I begin to dream about it and consider how I might obtain it. But when I thirst, I lay everything else aside and exert all my will and all my mind simply to receive what I need at that moment. The stronger the thirst, the more compelling my pleas become.
Imagine newlyweds who have just legally registered their marriage and then stood together at the altar. They have been blessed and pronounced husband and wife. If you asked them what they wanted most at that moment, I do not think they would say, ‘Well, now we are married, and we do not know what else interesting we might do.’ They thirst for a relationship, for intimacy, and for knowing one another as a family. The person whose hand they are holding is deeply interesting to them. If this mutual longing is absent, it looks very strange.
Imagine the Lord running after us, longing to give us His blessings and earnestly begging me to accept at least something from His storehouse: ‘Andrey, let Me give you love so that you may be happy in it!’ What would that look like? Yet in His mercy, Jesus sometimes leads us to appeal in precisely this way to people who are overfilled. But if I become such a believer myself, what can the Lord give me? He will not run after me and beg me. One day He will speak the most terrible words about me: ‘Andrey is joined to idols; let him alone!’ Then I will no longer be able to change this verdict. It is a very sad condition. But I hope this is not about me. I thirst for God’s blessings and cannot imagine my life without them.
When two young people, a man and a woman who are both virgins, begin a family, they have not yet experienced one another physically and do not know what feelings they will have, but they desire this intimacy and move toward it. Once they have experienced it, they possess personal knowledge and understand what it is like in practice. Later, they again desire to be together and receive what is now familiar to them. They passionately long for it because they understand that they are about to experience the family celebration of two bodies and souls becoming one. In all of this, there must be mutual consent and attraction; otherwise, instead of a celebration of the soul, there will be violence and perversion.
God does not force His goodness upon our hearts, although He always desires the closest possible relationship with us. He loves us unconditionally, but He respects our choice.
Try to force yourself to thirst for something and see what happens. Nothing will happen. You cannot simply produce such a feeling at will. You need a reason, certain conditions, or the understanding that you cannot live without it. When that which has satisfied my soul runs out, I know where to obtain more, and I begin to thirst for it if there is a delay.
A crisis can reveal my true thirst very quickly, but is it worth deliberately placing myself in such a condition?
The best way to receive thirst is prayer. Even when my heart desires nothing from God, my mind may understand that I need it, and I begin to ask for it. At first, this sounds unnatural: ‘Lord, give me what I will not appreciate!’ But as I continue to pray, God’s Spirit produces in me both the desire and the willingness to act according to His good pleasure. Thirst cannot be manufactured, but it can be earnestly asked for. Then the Lord creates the necessary conditions and intervenes in my life.
Overindulgence and idleness rob the soul of the desire to seek, knock, ask, and plead. Yet even an overfilled soul thirsts for more—not for the simple Bread of Life, but for perversions and something special and exotic.
I once asked someone why speakers from other countries were invited to our camp meetings, since translation takes so much time. He answered that people would not come to hear local speakers; they needed something exotic. I found that strange. Does the Holy Spirit work only through a select group of people or through those who are well known?
There is a thirst to receive, and there is a thirst to give. When the heart overflows with happiness and love, you long so much to share it. Yet you cannot break into someone else’s life and pour your happiness upon that person. At times, you encounter open contempt simply because you are happy and your behavior seems provocative against the background of everyone else’s unhappiness.
But my thirst to give is stronger than my reserve, so I take the risk and begin to share. Sometimes it works.
I thirst. What a blessing from Heaven! It is an open door to Heaven’s treasures. How the God Who longs for my happiness rejoices when He sees me thirsting for His blessings and coming to Him for what rightfully belongs to me as a member of Christ’s bride. And the Lord comes to meet me.
Thirst is the condition for receiving God’s great unconditional blessings. Agape love is unconditional toward me, but for it to become mine in my relationship with my neighbors, I must thirst for it and desire to live by it and in it.
Every advertisement is designed to convince me that I need to acquire what is being offered. Various means are used to influence my mind. I learn about the offer, begin to desire it, then seek it, and finally purchase it. But it is not always something I truly need.
God, however, offers me what I need most. And He knows how to convince me that possessing it is vitally important.
Bible verses for this chapter:
Hosea 4:16–18; Ephesians 1:3–4, 17–19; Psalm 42:2–3; John 7:37–39; Psalm 119:174; Isaiah 48:20–22; Psalm 143:6–7; Isaiah 44:3; Psalm 107:9, 35–38; Isaiah 57:15–16; 53:2